50 years of the cassette

Archway

I didn't like cassettes at all and very rately bought them. However, I used to buy huge amounts of blank tapes to make compilations for friends, for driving, and of course when the walkman was introduced. It was the cassette (or blank tape) that taught me the art of the compilation. In that sense, I'm grateful I lived through rhe age of the cassette.

Whickwithy

Archway said:
the art of the compilation

I sure hope you like mp3's better....

Archway

Whickwithy said:

Archway said:
the art of the compilation

I sure hope you like mp3's better....

Absolutely, it is so much easier nowadays. But the blank tapes really helped me to focus when I created compilations. You had to think carefully of the mood in relation to the available time you had on each side of the tape. That in turn taught me how to construct compilations that became musical journeys. I learned the craft on cassettes, and now it is as easy as can be.

Whickwithy

Archway said:

Absolutely, it is so much easier nowadays. I learned the craft on cassettes, and now it is as easy as can be.

Haha! True dedication to the artform. What I love is that I can carry about about seven different playlists for particular moods or just play them all! God, I haven't done a true compliation is ages.

Sartori

Whereas I don't believe in Playlists , probably as I like 'dance music' mostly and they intertwine well anyway . I tend to use folders to hold the different genres of dance.

Whickwithy

Sartori said:
I tend to use folders

That's called a playlist...

Sartori

One of the things I hold against mp3's and their players is the one thing held as its main advantage - size / number of tracks, you'd need a ridiculous amount of time to give each piece it's due time. I think this leads to greater disposability of music, but this leads to a bigger discussion than I want to have.
Cassettes (back on topic) and their size and portability gave me exactly what I wanted (at the time) . Their quality was great (at the time) , the ease of plugging in headphones into my tiny phone is still mind blowing - but I miss the tactileness of cassettes, their covers and insert notes (as I do L.P.'s) and that's the shame with the moving to digital.

Sartori

Whickwithy said:

Sartori said:
I tend to use folders

That's called a playlist...

Yeah, whatever .

Whickwithy

Sartori said:
covers and insert notes (as I do L.P.'s) and that's the shame with the moving to digital.

Too true. Sure makes a box set something special!

iuventus

I can, at last, release my final cassette; for, they have finally released it on CD.

hunter

I get the cassette thing for sentimental purposes. I was born in '81 and by the time I was 10 or so I would spend countless hours making mix tapes for myself and friends on my dads super high end (at the time) home theater equipment. Did the whole thing where you fast played the cd and it would read the sound levels for each individual track so I could adjust it to where I wanted it before recording to cassette. And if I was taking a song of vinyl I'd have to play it all the way through at regular speed while constantly watching the digital read out.

Pressing record and stop every time while you switched the album and possibly the source, adding up the track lengths so you could fit them onto each side of the tape...

It is a hell of a lot easier to make a compilation now that we are digital but because of that they often times don't seem as important...I mean you knew someone was passionate about the music they liked when they spent two or more hours making a mix tape for you and it was all the more flattering and moving that they spent that time making it for "you"...

I'm glad that we have MP3 players and music sources have gone digital for the sake of making my life easier but I also appreciate the nostalgic aspect of cassettes even if its just from my narrow "mix tape" related memories.

hunter

Border_Mind

Whickwithy said:

Border_Mind said:
I think the mp3 format feels soulless

??!?!?!
Border_Mind said:
if all an artist can offer is individual songs....If I like an artist it usually goes without saying I am going to appreciate more than three songs

You are clearly not as picky as I am. I have only found two artists in sixty years that were consistently worth more than two or three per album.

Border_Mind said:
I still maintain MP3's are rather insipid as anything other than a secondary source of music

Speaking of insipid, what the hell, it's music. I am not going to rub myself all over it or anything. I'm just going to play the damn thing. Easier to play = better for listening. Like when I'm walking, I don't want to carry a turntable, cassette or CD player with me. My MP3 player fits on my collar and I have two thousand songs on it (and, yes, that means about 500 artists)! If I'm going to get all hung up on quality of sound (which I guarantee you I won't - ever. Quality of music is over the top, quality of sound is bullshit), I can outdo any other media with digital.

Clearly it's an individual thing. Each person has their own individual relationship to music thank f*** we are not all androids without individual personality, tastes and opinions eh?

As I say as a secondary source of music MP3 is fine, it offers a convenience, but hey so do microwave meals doesn't mean we should eat them every day.

I can't think of many people who are gonna carry a turntable around to listen to, though I have kind of seen it happen. I rememeber a time where you would get people turn up to the Record and Tape Exchange in Camden and try out vinyls on their portable before buying, yeah I know.

When it comes to the enjoyment of music at home, I will always chose vinyl as the first format, CD as the second and loathe to have MP3 as the only option, and I doubt that position will ever shift.

ping

the best thing about cassettes was the ability to do mix-tapes and get loads of music cheaply or freely off your mates. thats also what i like about digital music. i still really like to have a physical thing in my hand like vinyl/CD/tape which i miss with mp3's, what happens to your itunes when you die?

i knew a woman in leeds when i was teenager and she worked for a music fanzine and used to send me loads of mix tapes with random obscure stuff. they were some of the best tapes i ever had.

Border_Mind

ping said:
the best thing about cassettes was the ability to do mix-tapes and get loads of music cheaply or freely off your mates. thats also what i like about digital music. i still really like to have a physical thing in my hand like vinyl/CD/tape which i miss with mp3's, what happens to your itunes when you die?
i knew a woman in leeds when i was teenager and she worked for a music fanzine and used to send me loads of mix tapes with random obscure stuff. they were some of the best tapes i ever had.

I was thinking burning a CD comp isn't quite the same as making a mix tape, it's often the case that you can put a full comp together in the same amount of time as recording one or tracks on a cassette. I guesss though a good playlist needs to be listened to before being burned, but there is something less 'real' about a burned mix CD don't you think?

Love your statement what happens to your itunes when you die? Classic! ;)

iuventus · Post edited by iuventus at 2013-09-01 15:30:39

Mix tape? CD compilation?

How about a playlist?

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